Bon Jovi Track Seven

 Jon Bon Jovi, in an interview, once said that his best song was "Track 7", to "listen to track 7" and "it's all about track 7" 

Back in the old days, everyone bought rock albums on Vinyl and an album typically had 10 tracks, 5 each side 

Track 7 would be Side 2, track 2

On cassette, and later CD, track 7 would be track 7, the concept of of Side Two only remembered by those who had built up vinyl collections, or who made a point of still buying a 12 inch vinyl, up to the point where you still could 

Bon Jovi "First Album"

Track 7 - Track 2, Side 2  - Burning For Love 

7800 Degrees Fahrenheit 

Track 7 - Track 2, Side 2 - Hardest Part Is The Night 

Slippery When Wet 

Track 7 - Track 2, Side 2 - Without Love 

New Jersey 

Track 7 - Track 2, Side 2 - Wild Is The Wind 

It gets trickier when an album has 6 tracks on side one - does track 7 mean literally the 7th track, now track one on side two, or symbolically would the best track still be in it's place of Side Two Track Two, now the eighth track on the album?

Keep The Faith 

Track 7 - Dry County 

Track 2, Side 2 - Woman In Love 

Dry County is considered one of their best compositions, also a single, while Woman In Love is a great rock track, an obscure album track to all but the true fans

Some view I Believe as the "bonus" track that opens the album, with the title track, it's lead single, being the true track one, which makes Woman In Love the track 7 

From Keep The Faith onwards, all Bon Jovi albums, now leading with CD sales rather than vinyl, would have at least 12 tracks, making the discussion about whether we consider Track 7 on the CD or "Track 2, Side 2" symbolic - and this depends on what you consider to be the better song, the true "hidden gem" that Jon was talking about 

These Days 

Track 7 - My Guitar Lies Bleeding In My Arms 

Track 2 Side 2 - It's Hard Letting You Go 

It could be that the classic Bon Jovi fan from the vinyl era would still by his Bon Jovi albums on 12 inch vinyl, and would look to Side Two Track Two as Jon's hidden gem, would not buy the CD and ignore the CD listing 

After the 5 year gap between These Days and Crush, Bon Jovi shifted into the Millenium and their new era, where they no longer had the big release singles like Living On A Prayer and Bad Medicine, many people believing It's My Life to be their last great single release, and last great stadium song

So some fans, now buying BJ CDs, find the concept no longer applies. This would be up to a fan whether they wanted to see if the Track 7 listed is the hidden gem, and if they want to compare it to Track 8, the symbolic "Side 2 Track2" 

Crush 

Track 7 - Mystery Train 

Track 8 - Save The World 

The rest you can look up on your collection at home if you were still buying BJ albums at this point 

HAZY SHADE OF WINTER

 

Time, time, time
See what's become of me

Time, time, time
See what's become of me
While I looked around for my possibilities

I was so hard to please
Look around
Leaves are brown
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter

Hear the Salvation Army band
Down by the riverside
There's bound to be a better ride
Than what you've got planned

Carry a cup in your hand
Look around
Leaves are brown
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter

Hang on to your hopes, my friend
That's an easy thing to say
But if your hopes should pass away
Simply pretend that you can build them again

Look around
The grass is high
The fields are ripe
It's the springtime of my life

Seasons change with the scenery
Weavin' time in a tapestry
Won't you stop and remember me?

Look around
Leaves are brown
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter

Look around
Leaves are brown
There's a patch of snow on the ground

Look around
Leaves are brown
There's a patch of snow on the ground

Look around
Leaves are brown
There's a patch of snow on the ground

WINTER by Tori Amos

 

Snow can wait, I forgot my mittens
Wipe my nose, get my new boots on
I get a little warm in my heart when I think of winter
I put my hand in my father's glove

I run off where the drifts get deeper
Sleeping Beauty trips me with a frown
I hear a voice, "You must learn to stand up
For yourself 'cause I can't always be around"

He says, when you gonna make up your mind?
When you gonna love you as much as I do?
When you gonna make up your mind?
'Cause things are gonna change so fast
All the white horses are still in bed
I tell you that I'll always want you near
You say that things change, my dear

Boys get discovered as winter melts
Flowers competing for the sun
Years go by and I'm here still waiting
Withering where some snowman was

Mirror, mirror, where's the crystal palace?
But I only can see myself
Skating around the truth who I am
But I know, Dad, the ice is getting thin

When you gonna make up your mind?
When you gonna love you as much as I do?
When you gonna make up your mind?
'Cause things are gonna change so fast
All the white horses are still in bed
I tell you that I'll always want you near
You say that things change, my dear

Hair is grey and the fires are burning
So many dreams on the shelf
You say I wanted you to be proud
I always wanted that myself

When you gonna make up your mind?
When you gonna love you as much as I do?
When you gonna make up your mind?
'Cause things are gonna change so fast
All the white horses have gone ahead
I tell you that I'll always want you near
You say that things change, my dear

Never change

All the white horses aah-aah
Mmm-mmm

 

How passionately we love everything that cannot last.

The dazzling crystallory of winter,
The spring in bloom,
The fragile flight of butterflies,
Crimson sunsets,
A kiss,

And Life.

This world is the Theatre of the Absurd ...

 

and I am The Lord of Misrule

The Lord of Misrule

In Britain, the Lord of Misrule — known in Scotland as the Abbot of Unreason and in France as the Prince des Sots — was an officer appointed by lot at Christmas to preside over the Feast of Fools. 

The Lord of Misrule was generally a peasant or sub-deacon appointed to be in charge of Christmas revelries, which often included drunkenness and wild partying, in the pagan tradition of Saturnalia. The Church held a similar festival involving a Boy Bishop. 

The celebration of the Feast of Fools was outlawed by the Council of Basel that sat from 1431, but it survived to be put down again by the Catholic Queen Mary I in England in 1555.

While mostly known as a British holiday custom, the appointment of a Lord of Misrule comes from antiquity. In ancient Rome, from the 17th to the 23rd of December, a Lord of Misrule was appointed for the feast of Saturnalia, in the guise of the good god Saturn. 

During this time the ordinary rules of life were turned topsy-turvy as masters served their slaves, and the offices of state were held by slaves. The Lord of Misrule presided over all of this, and had the power to command anyone to do anything during the holiday period. 

This holiday seems to be the precursor to the more modern holiday, and it carried over into the Christian era.

Saturnalia

 Saturnalia

Saturnalia became one of the most popular Roman festivals. It was marked by drunken orgies, tomfoolery and reversal of social roles, in which slaves and masters ostensibly switched places, much like the Lord of Misrule in later Christian celebrations.

Saturnalia was introduced around 217 BC to raise citizen morale after a crushing military defeat at the hands of the Carthaginians.[1] Originally celebrated for a day, on December 17, its popularity saw it grow until it became a week-long extravaganza, ending on the 23rd. Efforts to shorten the celebration were unsuccessful. Augustus tried to reduce it to three days, and Caligula to five. These attempts caused uproar and massive revolts among the Roman citizens.

Saturnalia involved the conventional sacrifices, a couch (lectisternium) set out in front of the temple of Saturn and the untying of the ropes that bound the statue of Saturn during the rest of the year. A Saturnalicius princeps was elected master of ceremonies for the proceedings. Besides the public rites there were a series of holidays and customs celebrated privately. The celebrations included a school holiday, the making and giving of small presents (saturnalia et sigillaricia), massive and multiple group orgies, and a special market (sigillaria). Gambling was allowed for all, even slaves.

The toga was not worn, but rather the synthesis, i.e. colourful, informal "dinner clothes"; and the pileus (freedman's hat) was worn by everyone. Slaves were exempt from punishment, and treated their masters with (a pretense of) disrespect. The slaves celebrated a banquet: before, with, or served by the masters. Yet the reversal of the social order was mostly superficial; the banquet, for example, would often be prepared by the slaves, and they would prepare their masters' dinner as well. It was license within careful boundaries; it reversed the social order without subverting it.[2]

The customary greeting for the occasion is a "Io, Saturnalia!" — Io (pronounced "e-o") being a Latin interjection related to "ho" (as in "Ho, praise to Saturn").